''Anti-Dühring'' (german: Herrn Eugen Dührings Umwälzung der Wissenschaft, "Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science") is a book by

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Vorwärts ''Vorwärts'' (, "Forward") is a newspaper published by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Founded in 1876, it was the central organ of the SPD for many decades. Following the party's Halle Congress (1891), it was published daily as ...

.'' There were two further German editions in Engels' lifetime. ''Anti-Dühring'' was first published in English translation in 1907.

This work was Engels's major contribution to the exposition and development of

Marxist theory Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fro ...

. Its full title translates as ''Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science'': this is meant ironically and polemically. The short title recalls

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

's polemic '' Anti-Cato''.

Eugen Dühring Eugen Karl Dühring (12 January 1833, Berlin21 September 1921, Nowawes in modern-day Potsdam-Babelsberg) was a German philosopher, positivist, economist, and socialist who was a strong critic of Marxism. Life and works Dühring was born in Be ...

had produced his own version of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

, intended as a replacement for

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

. Since

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

was busy at the time with writing ''

Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...

'', it was left to Engels to write a general defence. The sections are ''Philosophy'', ''Political Economy'' and ''Socialism''. Among Communists, it is a popular and enduring work which, as Engels wrote to Marx, was an attempt "to produce an encyclopaedic survey of our conception of the philosophical, natural-science and historical problems." Part of it was published separately in 1880 in France as '' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific''. An English translation was published in 1892. This work also influenced '' Materialism and Empirio-criticism'' by

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

. In the book, Engels articulated one of the classic definitions of the term

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

: "Political economy, in the widest sense, is the science of the laws governing the production and exchange of the material means of subsistence in human society ... Political economy is therefore essentially a ''historical'' science. It deals with material which is historical, that is, constantly changing." In his biography of Marx,

Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

found the most readable section to be that subsequently published separately under the title '' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific'' which he described as "the best brief autobiographical appreciation of Marxism by one of its creators. ... Written in Engels's best vein thad a decisive influence on both Russian and German Socialism."Berlin, I. (1963). ''Karl Marx, his life and environment'' (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 221 This work is also the source of a widely quoted aphorism: "The state is not abolished, it withers away.""Withering Away of the State." In ''The Encyclopedia of Political Science'', edited by George Thomas Kurian. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2011. http://library.cqpress.com/teps/encyps_1775.1. Another well-known sentence refers approvingly to

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

: "To him, freedom is the insight into necessity (''die Einsicht in die Notwendigkeit'')."

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Anti-Dühring. Herr Eugen Dühring’s Revolution in Science
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Progress Publishers Progress Publishers was a Moscow-based Soviet publisher founded in 1931. Publishing program Progress Publishers published books in a variety of languages: Russian, English, and many other European and Asian languages. They issued many scientific ...

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format 1878 books Marxist works Works originally published in German periodicals Books by Friedrich Engels Historical materialism Dialectical materialism {{philo-book-stub

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